On the night of November 19, 2006, Fushan Bay had a firework display over the Silver Garden Area.  Some locals told me it was a weekend celebration of the Ghost Festival.  The following night was followed by people traditionally burning Lunar Money or that Lunar Yellow Paper.  On Tuesday night everywhere I walked had people standing around these fires twirling a wand around it, making the lit ashes swirl into the heavens.  I checked online and was confused because I couldn’t find the answer anywhere; besides the Ghost Festival was in July not November.  After interviewing 30 or more locals I came up with this answer…

The Chinese in ancient times analyzed the world as well as the universe in terms of Yin and Yang (A system of comparisons).  An early book in the Zhou Dynasty such as the Yi Ching was such a book that helped scholars understand the world through comparison and numbers.  It came about that there were two worlds.  The Yang Jian which represented the world we live in and the Yin Jian that represented the Lunar World – the place that people go when they pass away.

Though to the Chinese when a loved one does not pass away to Heaven or Hell but to a Lunar World called Yin Jian or the Yin Space.  This Lunar World is a social world and hence why Locals burn money, paper cars and houses to “express best wishes and to give them full support in the Yin Jian or “Lunar World”.  They also tend to pour some Beer or wine around the fire for some reason.

This ritual of burning money for deceased loved ones occurs usually on the day he or she passed away, Grave Sweeping Day which happens in the spring and on the day of Ghost Festival on the 7th month of the lunar calendar.  They also burn lunar money on the first and 15th of the lunar month. So on the first day and fifteenth day of the lunar month Chinese people go to temples and cemeteries to pay respect to their ancestors.  If you go to a temple it will be busy and have a ceremonial feeling to it.

What happened on Tuesday, the first of the tenth month of lunar calendar, was special and a Shandong custom of expressing their feelings to their ancestors.